It’s amazing that almost every year the NFL throws me a huge birthday bash known to most as The Superbowl. Sometimes the event doesn’t fall close enough to my birthday to consider it a birthday party, but most years I have a ready-to-go party!
The Stadium – from MetLife Stadium Media Library Copyright 2009 (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant)
This year the Superbowl is being held in Rutherford, New Jersey at the MetLife Stadium, which means fans can have their pick of hotels in the surrounding area – including New York City. TrustYou, an online reputation management company, collaborated with Donna Quadri-Felitti, Ph.D. New York University, Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management, to compare hotel reviews from Super Bowl host cities for the past five years. What did the study find? Some of the highlights: Keep the noise at the game, expectation of super service, good food and good WiFi.
According to the study, host cities appear to blitz their guests with more staff, amenities, and attention as Service Sentiment Scores rose in the last three host cities’ for Super Bowl week over the same week of the prior year, with the exception of Miami in 2010.
Superbowl fans are foodies? According to the TrustYou study, Super Bowl guests are pretty picky diners compared to guests who stayed in the same cities during the same weeks the year prior to the Super Bowl. Who knew! It’s pretty safe to say that fans will have plenty of options during this year’s Super Bowl since it’s being held in one of the largest tourism markets in the world.
Super Bowl XLVIII is being called historic because this is the first outdoor, cold weather Super Bowl. Guests preparing to attend this epic event should be prepared to pay up if they plan to stay in the city. According to the study, there appears to be sticker shock among Super Bowl guests. All markets see an uptick in room rates, but according to TravelClick, Indianapolis hotels increased rates at 3 times their standard rates for the 2012 game and New Orleans hotel rates went up as much as 127%! You think that’s bad? According to the study, CheapHotels.org reported that New York hotel rates were up as much as 400% – 800% over standard rates. That could give almost anyone sticker shock!
The St Regis New York Hotel: Copyright Starwood Hotels and Resorts
I looked for a room in the greater New York City area and found some very high rates and limited availability. If you’re looking for a Starwood hotel, be prepared to pay at least $400 per night (Element NYC and Four Points By Sheraton Chelsea) or as much as $800+ per night (W New York, West New York Times Square, Four Points By Sheraton SoHo Village) if you want the ultimate luxury experience you could book the St Regis hotel for a mere $1,500 per night for a standard room or $3,100 for a standard suite.
Assuming you find a hotel room, that you can afford, how much will flights set you back? You might be surprised to learn that there are still some super deals! JetBlue has one-way flights from as low as $99 each way (one-way from Charleston to New York was $124 departing on Jan 31 and returning on February 3rd). Fans from Denver can find fares as low as $330 (including taxes) by flying multiple airlines. An outbound flight on United and return on Airtran resulted in the $300 fare using the same dates as above. If you want to fly direct from Denver or Seattle, you better be prepared to spend at least $600 per ticket round-trip. Fans from St Louis and Chicago can find fares as low as $260 round trip and there were fares as low as $300 round trip from LAX on Airtran.
If you can’t find good deals in the city, try to look for hotels and flights to nearby cities and use the train or a rental car to get to the game/to the city. If you’re a die hard fan, pricy hotel rates and crowded flights probably won’t keep you away. If you make it there, don’t worry, according to TrustYou’s study hotels are ready for you!
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